My last post explains my choice. Dofus has a release date of roughly 2003-04, but I recall playing it back in 2002. It's one of the earliest animation based mmorpgs that ran on Mac. It's unique in its 'anime'tion, though I wouldn't recommend it to people use to fps. It has a turned based style, so it's good for people that enjoy strategic fighting.

The link for Everquest for Mac (http://eqmac.station.sony.com/) is so outdated as to be virtually useless. The game is going on seven years old now by the way, and is as popular as it has ever been.

To play it, which is a free download for the software and a monthly subscription, you need to get flagged by SOE. To do this you need to sign up and use the on-line support chat system, or phone SOE, to get the flag.

Diamonin does not list a Mac client to download. Apparently they've no Mac developer/coder. So this game should be deleted from the list. There is some discussion on the Tech Support forum on how to compile you own version. Huh? Why don't they simply compile one and make it available? *shrugs*

This year JAGEX celebrates their 10th anniversary of RuneScape. That's a very long time for an online game. Most game companies would have released their original game, done a bug fix or two, then washed their hands of it. But JAGEX continues to add frequent updates and improvements, most recently they re-worked the gnomes with a complete make over vastly improving their original pencil eraser head looks. Kudos to the artists and 3D modelers that work there.

I played this game for two solid months, both free and paid versions. This is a true 3D Java-based MMO game. There are a lot of very talented folks designing and programming the game engine. It shows in every detail, from the buildings to the smooth character animations. It ran and rendered well on my Mac Mini, even on dial-up. There are tons of pre-designed quests and many skills you can develop. You can even build your own home in the paid membership version ($5.95/month). JAGEX, the owning company, claims it is the world's most popular MMO, and it shows. You are darn near tripping over the masses of people running (they always run everywhere) around collecting resources. And here is where the problems begin.

There are a LOT of children and early teens playing this game. I was astonished by just how many, and I seriously wondered if I was the only adult. I did, however, meet one or two. In the free version, there is a constant stream of ad banners that display at the top, mostly auto sales, air fares, home mortgages, and insurance deals. Now I know these children are just busting their piggy banks to buy the advertised junk, so the target audience is in question. Are they trying to appeal to adults or children? If adults, they are failing miserably.

Bots (Java-scripted characters) who sole design is to snarf up as much of the natural resources as possible, as quickly as it spawns, has reached epidemic proportions. There are literally thousands of bots contaminating all the worlds in RuneScape and JAGEX is unwilling or unable to stop them. I guess if the owners of the bots continue to pay the monthly member's fee, hey who cares? Key logging is also rampant. It was not unusual to hear wails from people discovering that their in-game bank account had been broken into and emptied of everything those poor sods had worked years for. Again, JAGEX is unable to secure players' accounts. And to add insult to injury, JAGEX provides players with a big red "Report" button, so you can report the bad boys. Isn't that JAGEX's responsibility? Instead, its dumped into the laps of the players. So its your fault.

Walk into any one of the cities in RuneScape and you are visually assaulted by rampant murder and mayhem. NPCs are hacked to bits almost as soon as they spawn, city guards rarely last more than 30 seconds. Bots clog the streets lighting long lines of fire logs down the streets. The game worlds are in an advanced state of anarchy, only worse. Its complete chaos run amuck.

The game world is much too small. Cities are crammed near each other. You can run from one side of the land mass to the other in a matter of two minutes plus 1 quick rest stop. If you play the free version, you will be severely limited to the land areas you can access, making it even MORE smaller. And after 10 years, you'd think that, it being a medieval fantasy setting, you could create a character other than human. Nope, human is all everyone can be.

And finally, RuneScape is devoid of any sort of game master involvement. The entire world is scripted. This makes you feel like you're playing a medieval version of the SIMS, or a virtual pin ball machine. Nothing changes, its all the same. Defeat the boss in a particular area and in a minute or two, he just respawns. So the world lacks any meaningful depth. Collect resources, hack NPCs to bloody bits; wonderful lessons JAGEX is teaching our children because they make up the majority of the population.

RuneScape has the potential and talent to be a really great game if they pull their head out of a dark orifice and decide to appeal to an adult audience. If they haven't figured this out after 10 years, I kinda doubt it.

This year JAGEX celebrates their 10th anniversary of RuneScape. That's a very long time for an online game. Most game companies would have released their original game, done a bug fix or two, then washed their hands of it. But JAGEX continues to add frequent updates and improvements, most recently they re-worked the gnomes with a complete make over vastly improving their original pencil eraser head looks. Kudos to the artists and 3D modelers that work there.

I played this game for two solid months, both free and paid versions. This is a true 3D Java-based MMO game. There are a lot of very talented folks designing and programming the game engine. It shows in every detail, from the buildings to the smooth character animations. It ran and rendered well on my Mac Mini, even on dial-up. There are tons of pre-designed quests and many skills you can develop. You can even build your own home in the paid membership version ($5.95/month). JAGEX, the owning company, claims it is the world's most popular MMO, and it shows. You are darn near tripping over the masses of people running (they always run everywhere) around collecting resources. And here is where the problems begin.

There are a LOT of children and early teens playing this game. I was astonished by just how many, and I seriously wondered if I was the only adult. I did, however, meet one or two. In the free version, there is a constant stream of ad banners that display at the top, mostly auto sales, air fares, home mortgages, and insurance deals. Now I know these children are just busting their piggy banks to buy the advertised junk, so the target audience is in question. Are they trying to appeal to adults or children? If adults, they are failing miserably.

Bots (Java-scripted characters) who sole design is to snarf up as much of the natural resources as possible, as quickly as it spawns, has reached epidemic proportions. There are literally thousands of bots contaminating all the worlds in RuneScape and JAGEX is unwilling or unable to stop them. I guess if the owners of the bots continue to pay the monthly member's fee, hey who cares? Key logging is also rampant. It was not unusual to hear wails from people discovering that their in-game bank account had been broken into and emptied of everything those poor sods had worked years for. Again, JAGEX is unable to secure players' accounts. And to add insult to injury, JAGEX provides players with a big red "Report" button, so you can report the bad boys. Isn't that JAGEX's responsibility? Instead, its dumped into the laps of the players. So its your fault.

Walk into any one of the cities in RuneScape and you are visually assaulted by rampant murder and mayhem. NPCs are hacked to bits almost as soon as they spawn, city guards rarely last more than 30 seconds. Bots clog the streets lighting long lines of fire logs down the streets. The game worlds are in an advanced state of anarchy, only worse. Its complete chaos run amuck.

The game world is much too small. Cities are crammed near each other. You can run from one side of the land mass to the other in a matter of two minutes plus 1 quick rest stop. If you play the free version, you will be severely limited to the land areas you can access, making it even MORE smaller. And after 10 years, you'd think that, it being a medieval fantasy setting, you could create a character other than human. Nope, human is all everyone can be.

And finally, RuneScape is devoid of any sort of game master involvement. The entire world is scripted. This makes you feel like you're playing a medieval version of the SIMS, or a virtual pin ball machine. Nothing changes, its all the same. Defeat the boss in a particular area and in a minute or two, he just respawns. So the world lacks any meaningful depth. Collect resources, hack NPCs to bloody bits; wonderful lessons JAGEX is teaching our children because they make up the majority of the population.

RuneScape has the potential and talent to be a really great game if they pull their head out of a dark orifice and decide to appeal to an adult audience. If they haven't figured this out after 10 years, I kinda doubt it.

I used to play Runescape my self when I was younger, and the game has gone thru some major changes over the year. I have to say the game has improved in many ways even tho it's a java-based game limited to the power of a web browser. But there is one that have not changed and thats the mechanics in general, it is still the point, click and collect game it used to be.